Ireland’s London embassy refused to accept a letter condemning the state's assault on anti-austerity activists while an RT cameraman filmed on Wednesday. The Irish state is fearful of "political policing" gaining global media attention, campaigners say.

Following three days of
“heavy handed” dawn raids on the homes of Irish
anti-austerity activists, a solidarity protest was held outside
the Irish embassy in London on Wednesday.

The demonstration was organized after 11 Irish anti-water charges
campaigners were arrested, detained and questioned by police. The
campaigners in question maintain they were arrested on spurious
grounds.

All three men are public representatives of Ireland’s
Anti-Austerity Alliance, which has campaigned tirelessly against
the Irish government’s debt repayment strategy to international
and EU creditors. Following several hours of
questioning, they were released without charge.

Other anti-water charges
campaigners arrested by Irish police include two boys aged 16 and
14. Ten officers were reportedly dispatched to arrest the 16
year-old, while six officers showed up at each of the remaining
activists’ doors.

The campaigners were detained in police custody in connection
with an incident at a community demonstration in Dublin last
November involving Ireland’s Minister for Social Protection.
A criminal investigation
regarding the alleged false imprisonment of Minister Joan Burton
at the rally is ongoing.

Burton's car was reportedly obstructed by protesters for two
hours during the demonstration while she remained seated in the
vehicle. Additionally, members of her team say they were
assaulted as police escorted them from the scene.

Irish TD Paul Murphy, who was removed from his house at 7am on
Monday by police, told RT the arrests were “politically
motivated,” and designed to intimidate Ireland’s anti-water
charges movement.

The movement opposes the Irish government’s recent policy shift
on water taxation. Campaigners warn the government's water
charges are a veiled austerity tax that many Irish citizens can't
afford to pay.

Murphy stressed the
timing of the arrests, following the election victory of Greece’s
leftwing Syriza party, is worth noting.

“We have an establishment that is scared, scared that the
lessons of Greece will be learnt, that there is an alternative to
austerity and the establishment parties can be ousted,” he
said.

“They focus that fear, correctly in my opinion, on the
anti-water charges movement, which is the biggest movement of
protest this state has seen in decades.”

The TD for Dublin South-West said he was unsure who had
orchestrated the arrest of the political campaigners. He
suggested the call may have come from the upper ranks of
Ireland’s police force or the Irish government itself.

Murphy argued the primary objective was to “criminalize the
anti-water charges protests,” and quietly quash dissent.

Wednesday’s protest outside the Irish embassy was organized by
the Socialist Party of England and Wales. Neil Cafferky, a member of the
party, told RT the arrests of political campaigners in Ireland
were designed to undermine Ireland’s anti-water charges movement
and wider political left.

UK campaigners who were gathered at London's Irish embassy on
Wednesday attempted to hand its staff a letter criticising the
Irish government’s “attack on the democratic right to
protest.”

Protesters had informed the embassy of the letter prior to the
demonstration.

Embassy officials refused to accept it, however, while an RT
cameraman remained on the scene. They subsequently accepted the
letter once the cameraman had left.

“The eviction of the RT cameraman from the embassy really
does show that the Irish government is not at all comfortable
with the scrutiny these arrests are attracting worldwide,” a
spokesman for the protesters said.

The demonstration's organizers told RT the continued persecution
of political activists in Ireland will be “met with a wave of
protest internationally.”

Demonstrators have gathered in multiple rallies across Dublin in
recent days to protest against what they say is the Irish
establishment's attempt to stamp out dissent.

Dublin’s recent wave of
dawn arrests is not the first phase of alleged political policing
to surface in Ireland.

In January 2013,
socialist TD Clare Daly was arrested for supposed drink driving.
She was handcuffed outside her car, and subsequently brought into
police custody.

Following official tests, it transpired she was well below the
state’s legal alcohol limit. Although the incident was reported
widely in Ireland’s press, her name was eventually cleared and no
charges were brought against her.

He said the incident occurred while she was attempting to expose
“a major scandal” in the Irish police force. The
Anti-Austerity
AllianceTD
stressed Daly’s arrest was staged, whereby she
was“handcuffed and
pictures were leaked to the media.”

He said the arrest was a calculated move “to damage her
publicly and diminish the allegations she was making about the
police.”

Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny insists Irish police operate
independently of the state’s government. Probed on the arrest and
detainment of Murphy, Kenny declined to comment. As he made his way to a ministerial
meeting, he said the issue was a matter for Irish police.

“They run their operations completely independent of
Government,” he said.

Ireland’s Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan
Howlin, also dismissed allegations of political policing
following the arrest of Murphy. Howlin said Ireland’s police
force and prosecutorial system is autonomous from its government.

“I reject any notion of political interference with
policing,” he said.

“The guards do their job as they see it in their own light
independently. That’s the way independent proper functioning
democracies work.”

Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy was silenced when he
attempted to raise concerns over “political policing” in
Ireland’s parliament on Thursday.

The Ceann Comhairle, responsible for chairing Irish parliamentary
debates, ruled he was out of order. Murphy's microphone was
subsequently switched off.

Prior to the arrest of Irish campaigners this week, a political
meeting in Dublin held in solidarity with Greece’s newly elected
government was monitored by two members of Ireland’s Special
Branch police force.